I just returned today from my October 12 cruise on the Destiny which I would say was the cruise from hell. I started my cruise with no luggage. U.S. Air lost everthing that we had checked. I attempted to report this in the San Juan Airport and was told to tell the Carnival Representatives. We had no clothes for the first three days of our Cruise but made the best of it. We were unable to attend the formal night, which was the night of our 25 Anniversary but we decided we would do what we could to have fun. Carnival advised us that they would attempt to get our luggage sent to Barbados on Wednesday. They did not want it going to Martinique, they said that we would never see it again. We got our luggage in Barbados. On Wednesday evening while still in Barbados the air condition on the ship quit working. We were told by the Captain that the ship would not set sail to Aruba until it could be fixed. Most people with inside cabins slept on the Lido deck or in the hallways. Those lucky enough to have a balcony kept the cabin and balcony door open to get some air. We stayed the night in Barbados and learned that the cruise to Aruba would be cancelled as they were unable to fix the problem. We headed back to Martinique to pick up two people that Carnival had flown in to fix the problem. They were unable to do so and the Captain then cancelled the cruise and we headed back to San Juan. HERE THE PROBLEMS START. We arrived in San Juan at 2:00 P.M. We waited 6 HOURS TO LEAVE THE SHIP. They then said that they would book a room for all of us in San Juan as we were getting back on Friday and our flights were leaving until Sunday. We were happy with that. Carnival never booked a room for me or the several other hundered people that were left standing on the peer. They had one rep with the manifest from the ship attempting to tell the people that surrounded her where to go. Carnival advised us that they had booked a room in San Juan at the Normandy Plaza. Upon our arrival we found a hundered people ( other Destiny passengers ) waiting for a room and there were none. After several hours a rep showed up with some busses and sent us to a hotel an hour away. We were advised in writing that Carnival would not pay for two days of our stay and they had changed all of our flights. This morning I found a paper under my hotel room door which advised that Carnival had booked me on a flight on Delta Airlines, however when I called Delta to confirm my flight, they said that Carnival had not booked a flight for us. I called the emergency number that was left by Carnival and learned that they had given us the wrong flights. Several couples booked their own flights to get home. Needless to say I feel that Carnival cared little about us they just wanted us off the ship. It was apparent that they were not prepared to deal with a problem such as this and I felt as though I was on my own. I spent alot of money getting places like the Hotel. I should not have had to do that. There was nobody available to help us or give us direction. We were told by the Captain that Carnival would reimburse us for 50% of our cruise and give us a 50% discound on another cruise. I WOULD NOT SET FOOT ON ANOTHER CARNIVAL SHIP IF IT WAS FREE.

It sure sounds like an awful trip. I know that you said you would never book another cruise on Carnival and I can certainly understand comments made in the heat of the moment, but for those who would, I think a free cruise instead of a 50% discount would be more appropriate. These things have happened on every major cruiseline, including even more catastrophic events such as fires and complete engine failures. If you had been on each cruiseline when they experienced these problems, I suppose your cruising days would be a thing of the past, based on your comment. I hope your next cruise, if there is one, makes up for this one. It seems you were really unlucky, in that the airlines lost your luggage too. That's really an awful combination of events. After all that, I suppose it's fortunate you made it back in one piece. Good luck.

Sorry to hear about your disasterous trip, unfortunately you were on that one. However, reading the other posts, I'm sure you have heard of other wonderful vacations that people have taken on Carnival and have become lifelong cruisers with them, so hopefully you will take that into consideration and give them another chance.

My suggestion is to contact the President of Carnival and explain what happened on your trip. W ho knows, he might be more generous and offer a free cruise, wouldn't hurt to try! If you are interested, here is the contact info:

Mike....sorry to hear about all the problems you had. We have had good and bad cruises on Carnival. We have never had a bad cruise on Celebrity. Please don't give up on Cruising. Try another cruise line.

Thank You for your support. I came home and blew off some steam on this website. I guess I can understand that things can happen. But the treatment that we received was unexceptable. The biggest problem that I encountered was the fact that Carnival announced on Friday that we would receive information in reference to hotel stays and new flight arraingments. Several hundered of us never received that. We were told to leave the ship and a team would be waiting outside customs to help us. There was one woman there that was surrounded by screaming people who were trying to find out what to do. We were dumped off in San Juan with no place to go. She was sending people to hotels that had no rooms available. This was kind of scary.

I would suggest that if you are going on a cruise that you leave the day before to allow for problems such as luggage being lost. I was told that there were 19 other couples with no luggage. Three of those couples were on the same flight as my wife and I. I guess that I would not allow Carnival to book my cruise. I would try to book a non stop flight to San Juan.

Mike..
Sounds as if you got nailed "coming and going" (forgive the pun). Difficult to go through the luggage situation first, and then run head on into the air conditioning problems.

From the sound of it, there's doesn't seem to be any doubt that Carnival could have handled things better. It had to be a huge headache for them to try and rearrange travel plans and accommodation for everyone on the ship. Not all that surprising that even a couple hundred people would end up with problems.

I'd recommend contacting your travel agent and have them go to work, carrying your problems to the appropriate people at Carnival. Anyone can be a TA when things go smoothly.This is their job, and they'd likely get alot farther than you.

The offer of a 50% refund for this cruise, plus 50% off another, is really the equivalent of a free cruise. Have your agent get Carnival to reimburse your expenses for hotel, etc., and give them another try!!

At various times most of the major cruise lines have run into situations where they've ended cruises early, and in most of those cases, they had some difficulties making arrangements for at least some of the passengers. As I said earlier, it has to be a huge job, and on very short notice to make everyone's arrangements.

I honestly dont think any of the mass market lines could get it done without a hitch. Sure it felt awful to be the "hitch", but follow up and see if you can a satisfactory settlement from Carnival.

Going along with some of the other replies I suggest you contact (1) your travel agent and have them go to work on your behalf and/or (2) write a letter to Carnival's Customer Service (I don't know the exact name of the title of the department). Approach it as a business - (a) these are the events, (b) from what was told to us these are things we were expecting but did not occur, (c) these are the things they did do well, (d) these are areas that need improving, and (e) these are things that did go well. Followup with your expectations for the future. Sample: "I imagine that from experiences such as this you will have a better action plan in place so that despite the ship having to return to port the passengers are more expediently processed and have accomodations and travel arrangements with minimum inconvenience."

I strive to quickly get past the emotional let down of inconveniences and make the best of the situation.